Compared to other population centers in California, the San Jose area appears to be doing well at limiting alcohol-involved injuries, according to the California Highway Patrol’s latest report on statewide traffic collisions. If alcohol-involved injuries were distributed evenly across the state, you’d expect Santa Clara County to have 787 of them. For 2013, the latest year on record, CHP reports 609 alcohol-involved injuries in the county.
A year ago, 17 year old Hanren Chang was hit and killed by a drunk driver while crossing Sloat Boulevard in San Francisco. Hanren, a student at Lowell High School, was walking home after celebrating her birthday earlier that night. Her death was one of 21 tragic fatalities by pedestrians in San Francisco in 2013, […]
As we mentioned a few weeks back, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety is pushing for legislation that would force states to require interlock devices for all drunk driving convictions or risk losing out on federal highway funds. Now, with the Senate’s transportation bill including a provision directing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to […]
By now, you’ve likely heard the story about 9 year-old Ryan White, a Philadelphia tourist visiting San Francisco to see the Phillies play the Giants. After the game, White was hit by an alleged drunk driver in San Francisco. White suffered bone injuries to his pelvis, left leg, and ankle, as well as internal injuries and a serious brain condition. But it looks like White has turned a corner following this tragic car accident. On Tuesday morning, doctors downgraded his condition from critical to serious, following White’s first spoken words since the accident.
Last Friday, 61 year-old James Hudson was killed by a drunk driver while crossing San Francisco’s Masonic Avenue, one of the city’s busiest and most dangerous arteries. The suspect, 23 year-old Jose Jimenez, who was driving over 50 miles per hour in a 25 mph zone, is expected to be charged this week with vehicular manslaughter and driving under the influence of alcohol. Masonic Avenue is one of San Francisco’s most notorious pedestrian accident hot spots, and last week’s death indicates the city’s obligation to make significant steps to make it safer to reduce future deaths.
Most penalties for dangerous driving tickets are designed to prevent the perilous behavior from reoccurring. If you’re fined for driving 80 miles per hour in a 60 mph zone, for example, you are more likely to think twice before driving too fast the next time around. But when drivers don’t seem to mind the penalties, are state enforcement agencies responsible for adopting stronger measures to get habitually dangerous drivers off the road?
Like we’re back in school, 34.4 million Americans, including more than 4 million Californians will join me this Friday night to travel more than 50 miles to a vacation getaway for the long Labor Day weekend. In California and across the country, this holiday weekend’s travel predictions mark a ten percent increase over 2009 numbers, which indicates that it will be marked by more traffic, and likely more accidents, than last year.
Two weeks ago, a Greyhound bus carrying 31 passengers collided with an overturned SUV near Fresno, California. The accident, which killed six and injured dozens, was tragic and proved the necessity of stricter highway safety regulations. Though Greyhound has had its share of tragic bus accidents over the past decade, new information indicates that this crash was likely not the driver’s fault. A coroner announced today that autopsy results indicate that the driver of the overturned Chevrolet Trailblazer was drunk when her car capsized in the middle of the highway.
This Saturday night 17-year-old Oakland driver caused an fatal accident while under the influence of alcohol. The driver, whose name has not been released because he is a minor, was arrested on vehicular manslaughter charges for the death of 22-year-old Martin Contreras. He has been busted on DUI charges before, which carries a suspended license penalty of six months for a first-time offender in California. If California had stricter ignition-interlock laws, the accident could have been avoided.
Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed two bills Sunday that will require or encourage convicted drunk drivers to install ignition-interlock devices in their vehicles. The devices allow a car to be started only if the driver blows into the device and has an acceptably low blood alcohol content. “I took action and signed these bills because we must […]
